The American Elf has been freed

I have a not-so-secret love for strange web comics, which I indulge in from time to time. Today I found out that one of my favourites, James Kochalka’s wonderfully warm and personal sketchbook diary has been opened for non-subscribers. It was kind of hard to recommend it to anybody, since you don’t really get a very good feel for the depth of the strip just from reading a single strip, but with the archive open, anyone can wander in and read almost 8 years’ worth of strips.

It is simple and poetic insights in the everyday life of a man (drawn as an elf) and his family in Burlington, Vermont. I know this doesn’t sound like a thrill, but it grows on you. As you, in small inexplicable ways, come to recognize the rhythms and patterns, thus finding a picture of life itself. Not in the individual strips, but in the sense of whole that occurs when you feel intimately connected to those going-ons which you’ve never been part of.